A Giveaway! Help me quit smoking!

What I didn’t tell you is that this is something – a plan, if you will – that has been in place for about two months now.

I had mentioned to Karl that I wanted to quit smoking. He confessed that he had been feeling like it was time for him to quit as well, but he was nervous about whether or not he’d be able to stick with it. After much deliberation about when would be the right time and what potential obstacles were coming up for each of us, we set a date. We would quit together and help keep one another accountable on August 15th.

I still want to quit smoking. I still need to quit smoking. Desperately. But I’m also going to be driving 12 hours straight to Nashville tomorrow morning – and another 12 hours back on Sunday. The kids are coming home and we have to meet their grandparents in Nashville (our official half way drop zone) to pick them up.

If there is a handbook for quitting smoking I’m pretty sure Do Not Confine Yourself In A Car With Another Smoker For 24 Hours The Day After You Give Up Cigarettes is in there somewhere. I suspect it’s right under Hide The Ashtrays.

So now, thanks to Karl being very understanding of my fickle woman ways, we have set a new date.

On Monday August 18th, I will officially become a non smoker.

Jared has already signed on and will be quitting with Karl and I. Thank you, God. I know Karl encouraged a lot of other people to join us and he has a badge on his site for everyone who is joining in the “Quitterati”. Knowing that other people are making this huge commitment with you will definitely help keep me on track.

I’d like to ask the rest of you, those of you who aren’t smokers or won’t be quitting, to help me out too. And I’m even going to bribe you for your support.

What is SmartyPig? It’s an online savings account that I am absolutely in love with. I started using them myself after winning a gift card from Lisa. I was so impressed, I knew I had to share the money love with you guys. (No. Really. Not being paid for this.)

Here’s how you can win AND HELP ME QUIT SMOKING:

1. Leave a comment with your best quitting tip!

And/OR

2. Link to this post on your blog – you can even use that pretty button up there!

If you do both, you get two entries. YAY! Winner will be randomly selected, blah blah blah. Contest will be open for 1 week (until next Friday, in other words.) After all, the first week is the hardest – right?

I’m hoping that when I have those moments where I want to say “screw it, light me up!”, I will think about all the people that I have shared this with. I’m hoping that when I am tempted to let myself down, I will think about having to let you all down.

And I’m a woman. Everyone knows we care way more about disappointing other people than taking care of ourselves.